Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field building automation, and more particularly to an apparatus and method for identifying, locating, and grouping a plurality of wireless devices whose identities, locations, and functional groupings are unknown.
Description of the Related Art
Present day building lighting systems are generally controlled via wired interfaces, and these systems may be either monitored or unmonitored. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, there is substantial momentum to convert these wired lighting systems over to more efficient wireless lighting systems that allow for wireless control and management of devices therein. Although inventive concepts presented herein may be applied to a diverse number of wired/wireless devices and systems, for clarity purposes this disclosure will be presented in terms of an exemplary building comprising a plurality of light fixtures, along with associated switches, occupancy sensors, daylight harvesters, and other associated building automation devices. The building may be undergoing energy efficiency improvements through the installation of wireless radios in each of the light fixtures, wireless switches, wireless sensors, and wireless controls, to allow for more efficient use of electrical power.
The present inventors have observed that when a present day wireless network is created, in order to configure the network of devices for proper operation, determination of the devices' locations and functional groupings is mandatory. But present day techniques for identifying, locating, and grouping devices require that unknown devices be identified and located one device at a time, which is incredibly labor intensive, time consuming, and error prone.
When converting a system of wired devices into a controllable network of wireless devices, the process described above must be accomplished so that wireless controls and sensors throughout the building are configured to interoperate with each of the functional groups of devices in substantially the same manner as their wired controls and sensors that are being replaced. That is, the wireless network needs to be configured so that, say, a wireless on/off switch in a particular office area only controls the light fixtures therein, and does not control additional light fixtures down the hall or in other parts of the building.
Furthermore, the labor associated with locating and grouping devices into functional groups is also substantial, even with accurate floor plans, the labor required to perform these tasks is steep and expensive and because of intensive human involvement, the process is prone to error.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for identifying, locating and functionally grouping a plurality of devices in a wireless network that exhibits a substantial reduction in error over that which has heretofore been provided.
What is also needed is a technique for creating functional groups of devices in a wireless network.
What is furthermore needed is a mechanism for creating functional groups of wireless devices that does not require the wireless devices to be identified and located one at a time.